Reflections on LEGO Serious Play
Last week I wrote something that had been on my mind for a while about LEGO Serious Play, which started a bit of conversation on LinkedIn. As you'd expect, I spent a fair amount of time writing and editing that post, trying to figure out exactly how I felt about LSP and what it was I was trying to say. Sometimes though I wonder whether the most honest reactions to things get a bit lost in that process. So, I wanted to try something. After I wrote and posted the piece about LEGO, during my daily journalling I found myself writing my unedited thoughts in a way that was more...blunt. I thought I would share those blunt reflections.
This is stream-of-consciousness writing. That means it's not the most reasonable, logical or fair distillation of my thoughts; it's also not necessarily the truest depiction of my thoughts, as we all know of things said (or written) in the heat of the moment. It is flippant, and glib, and is in no way a comment on a specific person on persons.
But what this unedited version does show, is two things: first, the difference between punchy spontaneous thought, and more rational, calm, but edited writing - and the pros and cons of both styles. Second, is that a dawning observation that this - play, plork, playfulness - this is something I really DO care about...and something am often frustrated by. When reading it, I encourage you to read between the lines, and hopefully see an honest depiction of the frustration, joy, passion, enthusiasm and self-involved grumbling that is my ever-evolving relationship to play.
I think I'm bored of people - myself included - saying things like "change is a creative act" or being "change-makers" or any of that bullshit pseudo-...philosophical nonsense. And I know I'm guilty of it too! And I know I'm making excuses when I justify it, but there's so much fucking waffle around the incredibly human, tangible, affective experience of just going out there into the world and trying to be more playful. Just give it a go! Let yourself be silly in whatever way feels comfortable to you - push a norm, try something new, don't stop yourself from doing, wearing, saying, being something because you're worried about what someone else might think. This is really what I want to say about LEGO SERIOUS PLAY, which is that for me it is so far away from PLAYFULNESS that it may as well be called LEGO FUN WORK MEETING.
Maybe Corita would have been more kind, more forgvigin than me; more patient, certainly - but the brandedness of LEGO SERIOUS PLAY I think flies against what a lot of her teaching is in *Learning by Heart. *LSP uses the most basic version of play to assess "systems thinking" blah blah. Maybe I'm just not cut out for the corporate horseshittery; maybe I don't want to buy into the faux-seriousness of it all. Because that's what it is! If we don't believe it's more serious then we're just saying it for the sake of it and if that's the case WHAT'S THE FUCKING POINT. I love play, and I love playfulness, and I'm fucking BORED of people talking about them as facilitation techniques and not WAYS OF BEING THAT MIGHT IMPROVE OUR LIVES.